Hi all,
I honestly have found some of the negativity and ramble by others on Lee's thread to be tiresome and counterproductive, so I'm posting a separate review here. Y'all may do what you will with it.
I pre-ordered a pair as soon as they were available. I received them about a week ago, so take these as initial impressions. However, I feel like I know enough now to state that for me, these are the best binoculars available on the market, at any price, for my own purposes. They are superb.
I will post my thoughts consistent with my previous reviews.
General
I am a decent but not stellar birder, and bird in different habitats. A lot of seawatch, woods, located in Pacific NW of US. Our winter light here is subtle and highlights color shift. For much of the year, wetness is a thing, as is condensation (substantially actually). I often bird from my bike, and shove my bins in my handlebar bag, as well as a field coat. I am tough on gear. I often carry my scope over my shoulder and will one hand bins - an important consideration.
Other bin experience
I own or have owned many great bins, and have looked through pretty much all alphas more than once, except for the Swaro SLC and the Nikon EDGs. To summarize some of my opinions (again based on my own needs):
Swaro Pures and NL: I haven't been able to get past the glare. It is a thing for me. I also think the Pures are ugly.
Zeiss SF: The color shift, which I complained about previously, kept me from keeping these. They definitely have some faerie dust sprinkled on them optically however. Do not understand why the diopter has detents - do foci have detents?
Leica 8x42 Noctivids: Always intrigued, but ultimately size and weight hold me off.
Bins I currently also own: Leica Uvid 7x42 and 8x20, 8x32BN, Swaro 7x21 Curios, Zeiss 8x42FL old coating (non current non red), Nikon 8x32SEs. Of these, the best overall are the Nikons. However, those are not waterproof, making them only useful about half the time.
View
The resolution is superb. It is best of all my bins, along with the Nikon SEs, and that is saying a lot. Contrast is very good. Saturation is not quite like a top Leica, closer to Nikon, which is to say neutral - and isn't that what we want? They lack a certain something - pop, microcontrast - that I get in red coated Zeiss including the Conquest HD, later FLs, and certainly SFs. On balance, however, I prefer the view the SFLs to these other red-coated Zeiss given the SFL's color fidelity.
Edge sharpness for me in bins is meaningless, short of a real problem. I care about edge sharpness in scopes, not bins. I move bins where I want to look, just like my eyes, which have terrible edge sharpness btw !!!
Speaking of, color fidelity is really excellent. Kudos to Zeiss for listening (?) and delivering truly excellent neutral colors. To me my SEs have had the most neutral, true to life color; the SFLs are similar, but with more light transmission and thus "lift" in the view.
Glare is not perfect but very good. I'm not troubled by it as I am by many Swaros.
I am not bothered by CA much, and don't really see it in these.
3d is very good; certainly it's no SE (nothing else is) but it's fine.
Eye relief excellent.
View overall is very, very fine. I will say - it is perhaps not quite as calm as my FLs and SEs, in terms of ease of view. I love my SEs in particular for their remarkable ability to deliver all day comfort - I used them for a week in the Steens and they were so good for that, minimizing eye strain. I am guessing these SFLs won't be like that, but not bad either.
Functional design
Well, let's just say these are wonderful bins functionally.
The light weight is amazing for the format. I realistically can one hand these with my scope over my shoulder, which is a major benefit (just too much with the 8x42 FLs with their bulk) The new Zeiss attention to backweighting is really nice, and helps stabilize the bin axially.
Layout is simple. I would prefer the focus at the back, but am not that troubled by its more forward location.
Let's talk about the focuser. It's fast, very fast. I like it - I am often birding at the shore and moving between distance and nearfield quickly. The speed does make the focus a little "tippy" ie you can overshoot - but I know from my Conquest HDs, with a similar quick focus, you just adjust. People have mentioned a stiff focus - mine is very fine, perfect - I wonder if these have already been addressed in factory (my serial is 52592xx). I also like the width of the focuser, it's a chunky little sucker.
Gription is great on both the body and focuser.
As someone with astigmatism, I deeply appreciate an easy diopter. My right eye tires quickly over the day, and I often need to adjust the diopter - hardly a set and forget sort of thing for me. And for heaven's sake - no detents on the diopter - noone should ever do that! None here thankfully. My favorite diopter is on the Curio, but the old standard on the right barrel works just fine.
Eyecups seem good. Clicks up and down. I might have added a couple clicks. Swaro still gets the eyecup award though.
I believe, but am not positive, that the harness eyelets are cast into the magnesium body, and not a plastic component that is part of an overall assembly. Assuming this, these might be my favorite eyelets ever, chunky and metal.
Main hinge tightness is perfect - pretty stiff and solid, but not overly so.
I have not tested the Lotutec, but assume it is like my Conquest HDs. I find hydrophobic coatings to be totally necessary here in the winter - more for condensation than anything - fogging bins are a thing. Keeps my FLs from being winter bins.
Apparent durability is just hard to judge. I gave my tough old Conquest HDs to a dear friend - those are my reference standard for toughness, along with my BNs, and to a lesser degree Uvids. These are simple, which is good. Looking into the objectives, the rubber/magnesium body does seem really thin relative to other bins, especially given the magnesium body is cast (I assume). Only time will tell if that's an issue. If I were going on an expedition for weeks/months on end and total toughness was needed, I'm not sure I'd take these, more likely a Leica or maybe an EDG based on what I've seen. But overall, I'm not worried.
I've run out of time tonight and will add more tomorrow - aesthetic design, plus brief comparos to my other bins. But overall - I've found my new core go-to's. I'm stoked!
I honestly have found some of the negativity and ramble by others on Lee's thread to be tiresome and counterproductive, so I'm posting a separate review here. Y'all may do what you will with it.
I pre-ordered a pair as soon as they were available. I received them about a week ago, so take these as initial impressions. However, I feel like I know enough now to state that for me, these are the best binoculars available on the market, at any price, for my own purposes. They are superb.
I will post my thoughts consistent with my previous reviews.
General
I am a decent but not stellar birder, and bird in different habitats. A lot of seawatch, woods, located in Pacific NW of US. Our winter light here is subtle and highlights color shift. For much of the year, wetness is a thing, as is condensation (substantially actually). I often bird from my bike, and shove my bins in my handlebar bag, as well as a field coat. I am tough on gear. I often carry my scope over my shoulder and will one hand bins - an important consideration.
Other bin experience
I own or have owned many great bins, and have looked through pretty much all alphas more than once, except for the Swaro SLC and the Nikon EDGs. To summarize some of my opinions (again based on my own needs):
Swaro Pures and NL: I haven't been able to get past the glare. It is a thing for me. I also think the Pures are ugly.
Zeiss SF: The color shift, which I complained about previously, kept me from keeping these. They definitely have some faerie dust sprinkled on them optically however. Do not understand why the diopter has detents - do foci have detents?
Leica 8x42 Noctivids: Always intrigued, but ultimately size and weight hold me off.
Bins I currently also own: Leica Uvid 7x42 and 8x20, 8x32BN, Swaro 7x21 Curios, Zeiss 8x42FL old coating (non current non red), Nikon 8x32SEs. Of these, the best overall are the Nikons. However, those are not waterproof, making them only useful about half the time.
View
The resolution is superb. It is best of all my bins, along with the Nikon SEs, and that is saying a lot. Contrast is very good. Saturation is not quite like a top Leica, closer to Nikon, which is to say neutral - and isn't that what we want? They lack a certain something - pop, microcontrast - that I get in red coated Zeiss including the Conquest HD, later FLs, and certainly SFs. On balance, however, I prefer the view the SFLs to these other red-coated Zeiss given the SFL's color fidelity.
Edge sharpness for me in bins is meaningless, short of a real problem. I care about edge sharpness in scopes, not bins. I move bins where I want to look, just like my eyes, which have terrible edge sharpness btw !!!
Speaking of, color fidelity is really excellent. Kudos to Zeiss for listening (?) and delivering truly excellent neutral colors. To me my SEs have had the most neutral, true to life color; the SFLs are similar, but with more light transmission and thus "lift" in the view.
Glare is not perfect but very good. I'm not troubled by it as I am by many Swaros.
I am not bothered by CA much, and don't really see it in these.
3d is very good; certainly it's no SE (nothing else is) but it's fine.
Eye relief excellent.
View overall is very, very fine. I will say - it is perhaps not quite as calm as my FLs and SEs, in terms of ease of view. I love my SEs in particular for their remarkable ability to deliver all day comfort - I used them for a week in the Steens and they were so good for that, minimizing eye strain. I am guessing these SFLs won't be like that, but not bad either.
Functional design
Well, let's just say these are wonderful bins functionally.
The light weight is amazing for the format. I realistically can one hand these with my scope over my shoulder, which is a major benefit (just too much with the 8x42 FLs with their bulk) The new Zeiss attention to backweighting is really nice, and helps stabilize the bin axially.
Layout is simple. I would prefer the focus at the back, but am not that troubled by its more forward location.
Let's talk about the focuser. It's fast, very fast. I like it - I am often birding at the shore and moving between distance and nearfield quickly. The speed does make the focus a little "tippy" ie you can overshoot - but I know from my Conquest HDs, with a similar quick focus, you just adjust. People have mentioned a stiff focus - mine is very fine, perfect - I wonder if these have already been addressed in factory (my serial is 52592xx). I also like the width of the focuser, it's a chunky little sucker.
Gription is great on both the body and focuser.
As someone with astigmatism, I deeply appreciate an easy diopter. My right eye tires quickly over the day, and I often need to adjust the diopter - hardly a set and forget sort of thing for me. And for heaven's sake - no detents on the diopter - noone should ever do that! None here thankfully. My favorite diopter is on the Curio, but the old standard on the right barrel works just fine.
Eyecups seem good. Clicks up and down. I might have added a couple clicks. Swaro still gets the eyecup award though.
I believe, but am not positive, that the harness eyelets are cast into the magnesium body, and not a plastic component that is part of an overall assembly. Assuming this, these might be my favorite eyelets ever, chunky and metal.
Main hinge tightness is perfect - pretty stiff and solid, but not overly so.
I have not tested the Lotutec, but assume it is like my Conquest HDs. I find hydrophobic coatings to be totally necessary here in the winter - more for condensation than anything - fogging bins are a thing. Keeps my FLs from being winter bins.
Apparent durability is just hard to judge. I gave my tough old Conquest HDs to a dear friend - those are my reference standard for toughness, along with my BNs, and to a lesser degree Uvids. These are simple, which is good. Looking into the objectives, the rubber/magnesium body does seem really thin relative to other bins, especially given the magnesium body is cast (I assume). Only time will tell if that's an issue. If I were going on an expedition for weeks/months on end and total toughness was needed, I'm not sure I'd take these, more likely a Leica or maybe an EDG based on what I've seen. But overall, I'm not worried.
I've run out of time tonight and will add more tomorrow - aesthetic design, plus brief comparos to my other bins. But overall - I've found my new core go-to's. I'm stoked!
